The “Fast Moving” Field of eLearning #edtech

That title is actually ironic. Working in part of an industry that would seem to be driven by technology and incredibly rapid changes in pedagogy it is amazing how old the technologies are that are making a difference in my college.

Over the past year we have been making a concerted effort to gauge how well various approaches have been working, and due to the nature of the mix of qualifications in FE we’ve been concentrating on those that are assessed almost entirely on a knowledge basis and by multiple choice exams. For the most successful of these we’ve been using the basic Moodle quizzes and SCORM labeling activities developed in house using a template developed in 2004. These activities helped the tutor cover a 600 hour course in 450 hours and allowed the students to get as much practice as they felt they needed. They also enabled a much higher proportion of students than usual to pass the assessments first time and saved on the printing of worksheets.

The students were given access to Blackberry, iPhone and Android compatible revision activities accessed through QR codes, but these were hardly used. So the story is that sometimes the most effective eLearning may be the simplest and least innovative, despite what other people may be saying. You also have to remember that there will always be some people who don’t realise even the simplest things that your VLE does, even multiple choice quizzes!